VALERO TEXAS OPEN

September 23, 2003

Jay Haas

JAY HAAS: It doesn't for me, it doesn't at all. I guess I've looked at these golfers as good golfers, great golfers, I won't look at them as being a Spaniard or South African or wherever they come from. They're just somebody I've got to beat. It's just another great player that's out here trying to make a living like me.

JAY HAAS: Most of the guys we play at the Ryder's Cup or President's Cup are competing over here full time. We've seen these guys play for a long time, and I think we want to beat them just because it's the nature of sports or athletic competition. We're very competitive people and if we're going to put our games on the line then we want to win. We don't want to show up and say that was fun. I think it's gotten away from being such a war, so to speak, as it got there in the Ryder Cup in the early '90s. I think it's still very much a competition and I think both sides want to win, and not at all costs maybe, but I think they're very keen to win it.

JAY HAAS: Probably. I think when the Ryder Cup was canceled, I think that was probably the right thing to do at that stage, but I guess in my mind, the politics and athletics shouldn't be mixed. I hate that they do become intertwined there, but that's just a part of it, something we have to deal with. Hopefully they'll go to what we've done over here, as far as making our tournaments more secure, our driving ranges more secure, things like that. And because we're on an international stage, it's magnified, but I guess I don't think the majority of us go into thinking there is going to be any kind of an incident.

JAY HAAS: I think that helps us not be so opinionated about it because we know these people, and when John Van de Velde got some grief, and another a French guy, early in the season, was getting a lot of grief, I guess I never even considered that. This is just another guy trying to make a living.

JAY HAAS: Yes, and the press. Mostly fans, though. I don't know. Again, I just look at him as a guy I'm walking down the fairway with and trying to beat and he's trying to beat me.

JAY HAAS: Right.

JAY HAAS: American fans. I think they've gotten that way because like the America's Cup, who knew anything about the America's Cup until it was lost, and now all of a sudden it became a big issue trying to get it back. Same thing with the Ryder Cup. I don't know what the record was prior to 1989 or '87, whenever it was that they beat us over here, '87 probably at Muirfield Village, when they came over and won the Cup on American soil, that was a huge boost to the Ryder Cup ratings, but then it became kind of this war, so to speak. I think the Americans sometimes get a little boisterous and I think that you hear "Go in the hole" as soon as somebody hits a shot, a scream out loud. The British and Scottish crowd seems to be a little more subdued. I haven't played much in Europe. Like at the Solheim Cup, it looked like the crowds were very pro-European team, which is how it should be, as long as it's done in good taste. I won't say the American crowd doesn't do that, but they've got 85, 90 degree weather and they're having a few beers and that's going to happen.

JAY HAAS: Not really. I haven't really spoken to the guys about that. I know there was a huge issue at the country club about the fans and getting on Monty and things like that. You just hate to see that. I think golf has always been beyond rooting against the other team, wherein every other sport a guy misses the free-throw you're going to cheer if it's against your home crowd late in the game. In golf, you don't see that. You say, Too bad the guy missed it. In athletics, as a professional athlete, when I'm watching TV, I hate to see somebody mess up at the end of the game to see the other team win. I would rather see a great play to win the game. Golf is the same. You want to see a birdie finish. You don't want to see a guy make 6 on the last hole and give the match away. We've worked so hard to get to that point and everything. I'm kind of rambling here.

JAY HAAS: I loved Oak Hills. I won twice there. I always felt comfortable there. I was never a long hitter, and it seems to be the type of course that suits me, keep the ball straight and a good putter, that always helped me there. I was a little leery about changing courses, but I thought it was for the best of the tournament. It helped the event. I guess it's the type of greens around here or something. I've always felt comfortable playing the fairways and the greens here. The grasses seem to suit me. And with the past successes here in San Antonio, I always feel comfortable coming back here. I love the people, the food, it's just a nice week. I didn't think I would do as well here as I did at the other place. I haven't won, but I've really played well at this golf course. I've kind of fallen back on that and come into the week thinking I'm going to play well.

JAY HAAS: Probably No. 12, if you drive the ball straight there, I won't say it's an easy hole, but it's a 3-wood and pitching wedge or 3-wood and 9, a possible birdie hole. I've made 5s and 6s there. I think you've got No. 10 that's a potential birdie hole. 11 is not a long hole. If you get by 12 you have some chances coming in to make some birdies and finish the round off. That's one of the harder holes I think out here. In past years, sometimes they've made No. 14 a par 4. I can't remember how it was last year.

JAY HAAS: It's probably a better par 4 than a Par 5, so that's a pretty good stretch in there. If I could say not one hole, but starting with 12 through 15, you've got 3 pretty darn good Par 4s. You have a wedge or sand iron shot that's a potential birdie hole. If you can go even par for those four holes in that little stretch right there and over the course of the week, if you play those even par, I think you would have a chance.

JAY HAAS: Like I said, I really liked Oak Hills. The older courses, somebody my age, that's what we've grown up playing. When another course comes along, it's long walks between greens and tees, but that's part of it. I guess I've never gone to this course and say, I hate this place because we have to get in the cart three times to go to the next tee. They're putting up four or five million this week and we'll show up. As we always used to say, put 4 million in, we'll go play on I-10 out there.

JAY HAAS: Yes. It's funny that guys complain about this. A few years ago, not too long ago, we were playing for less money than they're playing for on the Nationwide Tour now. The leading money winner on that Tour is 400-plus-thousand this year. One year on the PGA Tour, I finished 13th and I won 220 for the year.

JAY HAAS: Yes.

JAY HAAS: Yes, out of sight. A 5-figure check 25 years ago was pretty special. If you got $10,000 or more for the week, you played your butt off. I'm still living in some of those days where I just can't even believe guys complain about anything when you're playing for this much money.

JAY HAAS: No. 1, I don't think that the companies would put drivers in our hands that are illegal, just because if we found out they were, we wouldn't play with them and now we're going to have to have another driver and break that in. We're pretty funny about changing clubs. Most of the guys out here get a club they really like and they don't want to change. They don't want to try something new. If you're going to take that out of their hands after they find out it's illegal, that's going to affect them. No. 2, this is a game of honor and integrity and all that. If you trust in us that we're not going to tee our ball up in the rough and mark it properly and not touch it in the sand, while all of a sudden we're going to have guys use illegal clubs, that's not right. That's just part of the rules. So I don't think you're going to have guys knowingly break the rules. As far as testing, I know there's been a push, or some guys have said, I think this should be tested after a guy wins a tournament, test his equipment. Well, if my equipment is legal in January and I haven't made any changes, it should be legal for the rest of the time. There's a rule that says your clubs cannot become illegal just through play. There was a groove issue, and they're saying the grooves get kind of wavy after so many bunker shots, the club cannot become illegal if it was legal one time just through practice and play and things like that. To me, if my driver is legal in January, if I test it, it should be legal in September.

JAY HAAS: It's changed tremendously, just recently, like you said.

JAY HAAS: The ball has a lot to do with that, I believe. The wound ball was still in play a few years ago. Everybody was playing that. And then when Tiger, they came out with the two-piece ball, the solid ball, and Titleist did, I think that was another jump in the yardage. So that was something we weren't expecting.

JAY HAAS: That's it. If you look at the NFL, a guy is 285, that's a huge man. And so in every sport they're getting bigger, better, faster, stronger. I don't think golf is any different. You're getting a better athlete coming into golf. That's just one part of it. The equipment is a big part of it. Conditioning is a big part of it, the courses are always so immaculately prepared for us. I read an article or was shown statistics from the last 15 years since I think it was '88 to 2003, or '87 to 2002, whatever it was, they took the driving distance, it had gone up like -- the average driving distance had gone up 13 yards or something like that. The tour average and the scoring was absolutely flat. There was a .18 variance between the high and the low of the scoring average, Tour scoring average. So --

JAY HAAS: The courses are longer. Everybody went nuts about putting new tees in at Augusta. People said we have to hit 4-irons and 5-irons at 18. That's what I played years ago. I'm playing that course the same way I was in the late '70s and early '80s.

JAY HAAS: I guess I felt like this last fall I really worked as hard in the off season as I ever had. No. 1, trying to get ready for this year and also trying to prepare myself for another ten years. People have said, I bet you can't wait until you turn 50 and get ready for the Senior Tour. Well, I could. I guess I never thought I'm playing this year to prepare for next year. I'm an instant gratification kind of guy. I want it right now. I guess I felt like if I played well this year and kept playing, that would carry over to the next ten years or whatever. I didn't really -- other than getting physically stronger, trying to be more flexible, things like that, I didn't really do that only for this year, I did it for a ten-year span, but I felt I could still compete on this tour.

JAY HAAS: I don't think it will ever be as hot as it once was, with Arnold, Jack, Lee Trevino, Chi Chi Rodriguez, all these guys who were at the initial thrust of televised golf. They were the stars of the '70s and they became Senior players and so there was an interest to see those guys perform and win tournaments again. But now every round of golf is on TV so you're seeing more and more guys coming out that we've seen for quite a while now and do pretty well in the Senior Tour, but I don't think it will ever have that initial burst like it had, say, ten years ago. Tiger is not in the field, so that's a big part of why. He's been so great for golf in general. But out here, if he's not in the field, it's not like a tournament. It's a shame because top to bottom as we've seen in two majors this year, we're all capable out here. But the perception of the public is it's only a real event if he plays in it. It's no knock by him in any means, but in turn that has hurt the Senior Tour also. But hopefully, like you said, the guys that are in their mid '40s to late '40s are coming out and will help promote it a little bit. As we're playing well on the regular Tour, moving that into the Champions Tour, hopefully that will help.

JAY HAAS: I guess I'm kind of a fence sitter on this one. If they want to do it, that's fine; if they don't want to do it, that's fine. I don't think it's a huge issue. I guess my feeling is that, as I said, it's a game of honor and integrity and I don't think guys are going to be doing it. If they are, if they have to look for an edge like that, then they can't beat me. It's always been my feeling about anybody at any level that tries to get away with something. Golf is not about trying to get away with something. In other sports it's always a close play first base, was it a fumble, wasn't it. There's always that confrontation there and, for lack of a better term, trying to get away with something, trying to bend the rules a little bit, and we don't do that out here.

JAY HAAS: About the pin being taken out? They don't overturn any rulings in baseball when they see the guy.

JAY HAAS: Like I said, everything is on TV now. All those Thursday and Friday rounds, people have nothing better to do and say that's not right, I'm going to find out about that.

JAY HAAS: You're not going to let this go.

JAY HAAS: I haven't. I really don't. I hit a nonconforming driver a few years ago. I couldn't control it that well. So that's a part of it. I think when you get those faces that get real thin, they can crush those faces, so it's not good for them.